


Glimmer

by Silvered_Fox



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Gift Rambling, Multi, Team C
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22062703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvered_Fox/pseuds/Silvered_Fox
Summary: One glimpse of something they had never noticed.Ficlette giftMajor Spoilers for all of Zero Escape (999, VLR, ZTD)
Relationships: Carlos/Kurashiki Akane/Tenmyouji Junpei
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Glimmer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [epobbp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/epobbp/gifts).



> Happy Holidays epobbp! 
> 
> I had no idea what series to write something for and I might edit the crap out of this soon (since it's all over the place) I just figured you'd enjoy the Team C stuff :D
> 
> (actually I'm foggy headed with exhaustion so this is definitely getting more edits but I think you'll like it hopefully) 
> 
> Surprise!

It showed up suddenly. Sometimes it never even showed up at all. But there would always be a glimmer when you were close to your soulmate, and something life changing happened between you all. When you met and connected and your fate's intertwined, your soul-mark would shine.  
  
  
The only times soul marks appeared were when their connected had crossed a path into fate. When groups of souls reached out to each other, connected and received some unknown energy signal under only the most specific circumstances.   
  
When conditions were met, your soulmate would resonate across with you and your soul marks would burn together.

  
Most people never found out who their soulmate was. It was rare enough to have an encounter where two souls would resonate enough to bring light to their marks. And then the souls had to be within a certain distance physically or they couldn't appear.  
  
Rarer still for there to be a bonded trio. But here they were.   
  
Maybe they'd been there earlier in the game and they hadn't been able to know.  
  
Seeing the small band of red snake across Junpei's limp wrist and knowing what it meant was worse than not knowing.   
  
She didn't need to look over her shoulder at Carlos as he gasped and reached for his sleeve, pulling it back in disbelief. She didn't need to feel the emotions bursting out from her heart as she stood, hand clutching the bracelet she'd used against her partner. 

She closed her eyes knowing that it was too late. It didn't matter how she felt, how they all felt she'd already injected him in any case.  
  
There was no turning back. There was never any turning back.   
  
For just one moment in time she could feel everything the other two felt. Not in words, but in emotions. The longing. The hope for a better future. And then the feelings faded into a foggy mess as the drugs made a mess of the memories. As the future they could have had slipped away for the future they NEEDED to have.   
  
Her own wrist burned with betrayal. Maybe, there could have been some other way. For just a moment she entertained the idea of the three of them running away together, finding a path through all the chaos to save everyone and still create the future she knew needed to happen and then it was fading. Cold and dull like Junpei's unconscious form.  
  
She'd made her choice. She had to live with this since it was also already done. Knowing the two companions on either side of her were her soulmates hurt, but it changed nothing.  
  
She did stop for one more moment to look up at Carlos one last time. "Take care of him? For all of us?"   
  
She knew that the next time Junpei saw her he wouldn't remember any of this. He'd have never seen his own soul mark. Maybe he'd stay with Carlos. A moment could come that their marks could resonate. He could find happiness with at least one part of their group. - maybe he'd never have to realize just what he'd been forced to give up for the greater good.  
  
_Soul marks didn't appear when the owners were dead did they?_ She wondered if it was better that he never saw their marks. If he'd found out that it was always supposed to be the three of them, he'd have been even more determined to chase after her.  
  
She had seen the path that this would take her on, and it was very unlikely that they would ever meet again in this life. If they did it would be a miracle if their marks resonated so strongly again so he would never know.   
  
"Did you know?" Carlos kept looking back and forth between Junpei's crumpled form and his own now bare wrist. The ghost of the bracelet he had no idea that was a part of him haunting the air between them all.   
  
"I ... " The hurt look on her face must have spoken for her.  
  
Carlos nodded and moved closer to Junpei. "I'll watch out for him. No matter how long it takes us we'll find a way to help you."  
  
"You can't tell him." Carlos didn't reply but she knew she could trust him.  
  
Soul marks were still something mythical for a lot of people. Almost nothing was known about why they showed when they did, why they bound certain people together, but everyone knew that your soulmate was your other half. Or third in this case.   
  
Akane held tight to the hope that somewhere out there Junpei would at least have Carlos by his side while she was doing what needed to be done.   
  
She had no way of knowing that with no memory, and an incomplete bond Carlos's mark never shone again. Junpei had nothing tying him to the random stranger who tried to stick alongside him as long as possible while he kept hunting towards an impossible goal.   
  
Carlos would think back sometimes and wonder just what shape their mark had taken.  
  
Junpei would have been more than familiar with the design that wove it's way around his left wrist. And Akane... it was so deeply a part of who she was that she couldn't tell where her mark ended and her life as Zero began. Especially years in the future.  
  
If Carlos had made it to the future, if Junpei had reconnected sooner he might have realized. When they confronted each other one last time it was without memories, and without their marks. A trio, is only a trio if all three are together.   
  
In another lifetime, Carlos would have asked Akane what the design of their mark symbolized, and Junpei would have helped explain how much he'd missed not being a part of that chapter of their lives. They'd have learned to control what they could send, and to activate their bond whenever they wanted. Most lives they never even noticed.   
  
One chance in a million to hold the happiness that their marks supposedly promised. 


End file.
